Olympic Fever
by roxypony
Summary: Darren spreads Olympic cheer. This started as a headcanon and it turned into a casual ficlet.


In honour of the Olympics I started writing this as a headcanon for Festival Of The Undead on tumblr but it went a little long so I decided to post it here. Contains a minor reference to the Saga of Larten Crepsley but it's not _really _spoilery I guess.

This is kind of short and shitty but I'm happy to be writing again, so whatever.

* * *

One of the things Darren missed the most about being human was watching the olympics with his family. So as soon as the games started, he set up a livestream in the Hall of Khledon Lurt. (It isn't easy setting up a wifi router when the only electricity you have to work with is a small solar panel attached to the side of the mountain and 45 extension cords so it could reach all the way to the hall. Darren figured he deserved his own gold medal for that feat.) At first the vampires were skeptical, but gradually their interest peaked as they began to catch glimpses of their own birth countries, represented by the most skilled and honourable of athletes. They couldn't help but get into it.

It started with Darren and Harkat sitting on a bench watching the opening ceremonies, ignoring scoffs and smirks from passersby. Kurda got extremely excited when a gigantic map of the world was laserbeamed onto the arena floor, and immediately joined the festivities. The next day, Larten casually stopped by to check if his home country had procured any victories. He sat down in time to watch them do just that. Arrow thought the whole thing was rad as heck. He'd always been a great fan of both athletics and competition, so as soon as he realized what Darren was doing he ordered a dozen barrels of ale be brought up to the hall. Mika started out considerably less eager than his colleague, thinking this endeavour was frivolous, but it only took one gold medal by his country to change his mind. And there was Vanez, Gavner, Arra. Of course they were more than happy to partake in some unusual fun. Seba on the other hand took a little bit of convincing. He wasn't sure about the idea of a computer in Vampire Mountain. In the end it wasn't the athletics that won him over, but rather the inspiring cooperation between the countries. He even a few dusty old flags lying here and there around the mountain. They weren't even close to having one for every country, but the colours sure brightened up the room.

By the end of the first week, every vampire in the mountain had made it a habit of congregating around Darren's laptop to place bets, down mugs of ale, and cheer wildly for their nations. During a particularly hairy snowboarding race, Larten ended up throwing a table against a wall out of sheer excitement. He typically showed more emotions in an hour of Olympic observations than he did in a year on average.

Then there was the hockey game, Mika's country versus Arrow's. Never before had there been a tenser atmosphere. Eventually Arrow's team prevailed, and Mika fully intends on carrying his grudge to the grave.

One Tuesday evening they were watching a special on several of the French athletes, and a brief segment had been filmed in Paris. Darren got confused when Gavner became teary-eyed, and even more so when he asked Larten about it later and his mentor snippily responded that he needed to mind his own business. Darren dropped the issue but held onto the hope that it was a story he'd get to hear one night.

There were 3 dozen vampires crammed into the Hall of Khledon Lurt to watch the closing ceremonies. When the whole thing came to a spectacular and extremely pyrotechnical end, there were a handful of eyes in the room that weren't completely dry. Finally, after two weeks of almost steady broadcasting, Darren shut his laptop. There came a disappointed silence. The boy prince felt like he'd accomplished a minor miracle. He'd gotten a bunch of stuffy old vampires attached to a human tradition. But maybe it wasn't such a miracle... after all, the Olympic Games are about honour, respect, strength, ability, cooperation, and the celebration of achievement. Darren could see how that appealed to the average vampire.

He looked around at his motley crew of honourary Olympians, at a loss for what to do next.

"So... Hall of Games, anyone?"

* * *

Even when it's not TVF Darren still brings a fucking computer to Vampire Mountain idk.

Last time there was a winter games opening ceremony, I'm pretty sure I updated something. 4 years later, here I am once again. Yeah, card-carrying lifetime member here.

Happy Olympics :)

rxx


End file.
